Enough
by yourmainsqueeze
Summary: Sakura reflects on her short-comings and what it takes to achieve goals that seem too far away. Sakura centric.


Sakura can count on one hand the number of hours she has slept this week, but there's not really anything she can do because as the Hokage's apprentice her work is never done. Alone in a cramped room within the hokage tower surrounded by mountains of freshly sorted paper work Sakura wonders when it will finally be enough. When will the time come when her efforts don't seem so wasted, so infantile? When will her best work become a little more than a futile effort?

In the forest of death when she shredded her hair, and something deep inside her, to save her teammates is wasn't enough. When they exited the forest something terrible had shifted, sped up, and Sakura was too slow to see what.

In the dark her tears and her pleas had not been enough. Her promises and threats fell short because she didn't really comprehend what was happening, Sasuke was growing up and facing reality, while she was clinging to the innocence and ignorance of childhood.

Sitting ramrod straight at the crowded desk, Sakura can feel the tears coming and really that is not at all surprising.

In the sand, even after years of excruciating physical training and tormenting emotional growth, it wasn't enough. In battle, she acted merely as a sidekick with a personal interest. In the end, she hadn't been strong enough to help Chiyo properly and the price had been unspeakable.

On the bridge, relying far too heavily on the gifted bit of Akatsuki Intel, Sakura had once again fallen short of her target. Sasuke remained out of reach and as she charged Naruto to bring him back to sanity, she realized that right under her nose, even with her trying so hard, this boy was slipping away as well.

On the blown open earth, gazing up at the boy she had been so desperately seeking, she had failed miserably when it finally came time to show him how strong she had become. She had stumbled and only put forth her weakness. In his absence she thought she had grown, but once faced with him again, he showed her how pathetic she remained.

Now the tears fall hot and constant, picking up momentum with each memory. She chokes under the weight of the past and jerks forward in her seat, a desperate attempt at escape.

With one punch she can topple mountains and cripple giant beasts, with the brush of her hand she can heal mortal wounds, with her drive, determination, and boys by her side she feels unstoppable, but it is still not enough. Her boys are still running in separate directions and Sakura is beginning to feel the strain of trying to keep things together. She can feel herself dragging behind.

She wonders maybe if this is how Tsunade felt when her team fell apart, when the realization that things could never be the same again set in, but Sakura is too afraid to make the comparison because she knows how her teacher's story turns out. Every day she watches her shisou hide her denial, drown her thoughts in sake, and work tirelessly towards a better future that she knows is too far away to grasp.

Does that mean despite what the academy teachers say, that as long as you try your hardest its good enough, is a lie?

After all, everyone that is close to her has always tried their hardest…. And it seems they have always failed. Tsunade couldn't save the people she loved, Kakashi couldn't save his comrades, Naruto couldn't bring Sasuke home, and Sasuke couldn't overpower the darkness.

So how is it that all her precious people keep going? Why do they continue to devote themselves to courses that they have already failed? Sakura supposes that they might all have some innate, inner strength that she lacks, but she doubts it. It is far more likely that they adhere to the infinitely unknown promises of tomorrow. A tomorrow where their best may finally be just enough, and it seems that the possibility is enough to keep them going.

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A/N: Thanks for reading my fic and if you would like to review that would be lovely, but please no character bashing. I love Sakura (even if in this fic it seems like I don't) and any mean comments about her will only make me sad. This story was written in a very brief span of time so any remarks on its improvement would be greatly appreciated!


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